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Does It Make Sense To Put Data Centers In Space? Can They Really Cost Less To Operate?

Scott Manley · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Space exploration & spaceflightCloud, DevOps & reliability

What it is

Scott Manley analyzes the idea of putting data centers in orbit, prompted by Lumen Orbit's funding. He examines the claimed advantage of constant solar power against launch cost, cooling and mass.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended in orbital data center threads as a sober explanation of why the idea doesn't work out economically or thermally.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2024, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “Scott Manley has published a video a few months ago explaining why putting data centers in space is an absolutely terrible idea.”

    Explains why orbital data centers are a bad idea

    shantara, 2025-05 · Recommendation · in “Starcloud”

  2. “The great Scott Manley did a video about that”

    Argues orbital data centers don't make sense even with Starship

    freefaler, 2025-12 · Recommendation · in “Nvidia-backed Starcloud trains first AI model in space, orbital data centers”

  3. “cooling is likely the biggest problem”

    Cooling and mass are the biggest problems for orbital data centers

    Ataraxic, 2025-12 · Recommendation · in “Economics of Orbital vs. Terrestrial Data Centers”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: space, data centers, scott manley, cooling, launch costs

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